You may do whatever seems appropriate to you and your colleagues ¹  with the rest of the silver and the gold, in keeping with the will of your God.

Exercise appropriate caution so that there is no negligence in this matter. Why should danger increase to the point that kings sustain damage?”

I am delighted to tell you about the signs and wonders that the most high God has done for me.

King Belshazzar ¹  prepared a great banquet ²  for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of ³  them all. ⁴ 

While I was watching, that horn began to wage war against the holy ones and was defeating ¹  them,

Everyone who does not observe both the law of your God and the law of the king will be completely ¹  liable to the appropriate penalty, whether it is death or banishment or confiscation of property or detainment in prison.”

All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ¹  He does as he wishes with the army of heaven and with those who inhabit the earth. No one slaps ²  his hand and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

So I gave orders, ¹  and it was determined ²  that this city from long ago has been engaging in insurrection against kings. It has continually engaged in ³  rebellion and revolt.

Then Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues acted accordingly – with precision, just as Darius the king had given instructions. ¹ 

The people ¹  of Israel – the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles ²  – observed the dedication of this temple of God with joy.

You people of Israel should tell those nations this: ‘These gods did not make heaven and earth. They will disappear ¹  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ² 

The king replied ¹  to the wise men, “My decision is firm. ²  If you do not inform me of both the dream and its interpretation, you will be dismembered ³  and your homes reduced to rubble!

¹ King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden ²  statue made. ³  It was ninety feet ⁴  tall and nine feet ⁵  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

He rescues and delivers and performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power ¹  of the lions!”

so that he may initiate a search of the records ¹  of his predecessors ²  and discover in those records ³  that this city is rebellious ⁴  and injurious to both kings and provinces, producing internal revolts ⁵  from long ago. ⁶  It is for this very reason that this city was destroyed.

Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the province of Judah, to the temple of the great God. It is being built with large stones, ¹  and timbers are being placed in the walls. This work is being done with all diligence and is prospering in their hands.

“I also hereby issue orders as to what you are to do with those elders of the Jews in order to rebuild this temple of God. From the royal treasury, from the taxes of Trans-Euphrates the complete costs are to be given to these men, so that there may be no interruption of the work. ¹ 

“I hereby give orders that if anyone changes this directive a beam is to be pulled out from his house and he is to be raised up and impaled ¹  on it, and his house is to be reduced ²  to a rubbish heap ³  for this indiscretion. ⁴ 

May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation ¹  who reaches out ²  to cause such change so as to destroy this temple of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given orders. Let them be carried out with precision!”

“I, King Artaxerxes, hereby issue orders to all the treasurers of ¹  Trans-Euphrates, that you precisely execute all that Ezra the priestly scribe of the law of the God of heaven may request of you –